I sincerely hope that my Finding Nemo reference in my title was not lost on most of you. {Side note: I am a HUGE Disney fan and will make random references to Disney movies throughout my daily life.}
Okay, that’s enough Disney……. For now, but I promise that if you keep reading my blog, which I really hope you do, there will be more Disney and/or other movie references.
WARNING: I am also a very sarcastic and snarky person at times. If that offends you, you should probably stop reading now. I do promise that I’m never intentionally mean.
Okay, and ACTION!
How many of you work out? At home? In the gym? Walks and/or jogs enjoying the weather and/or nature? If any of you do any of these things, are you a solo act? Do any of you have a “fitness” buddy?
A lot of people that I have talked to have said that having an accountability buddy helps them to stay on track. It helps them to push through and to do the workout that they don’t really want to do.
So, what do fitness buddies look like?
Let me start off by saying I know that the women in the picture above are models at a photoshoot, but let’s pretend that they are fitness friends. These women have perfect bodies, perfect hair, perfect make up, and perfect clothes. Good Lord, there is a lot of perfect in this picture! I look at it and have so many questions. How do they workout with their hair down? Doesn’t it get sweaty and in their faces? How does their makeup stay in place? Doesn’t their sweat cause it to run and smear? How do so many of them wear the light gray bottoms? Doesn’t it look like they peed their pants when they’re sweating? And after all these questions, I have one more. What is with my obsession with sweat?
How about these women? They are planking and happy. You know this is staged. I have never once seen a happy, planking person. Also, while they all have their hair pulled back, they all have perfect makeup and cute outfits. These are not images that I think of when I think of fitness buddies.
The images that come to mind are the ones that are personal and not always so perfect! But first, let’s start with a beautiful, non-sweaty picture. You’re going to meet my best friend in the entire world. The person that I go to with exciting news, sad news, joy, heartbreak, complaints, stress, etc. If you’re a Grey’s Anatomy fan, you’ll get this next reference. She’s my person.
First off, I want to introduce to one of the coolest people in the world. God bless my best friend Melissa! She has been on her own fitness journey for the past 12 years and has worked very hard to lose weight and to stay healthy. In the past 6 years, Melissa has had 3 beautiful daughters, 2 of which are identical twins. During both of her pregnancies, she worked hard stay healthy and active, and after her girls were born, Melissa went back to her rigorous workout routines to lose the small amount of pregnancy weight that she gained. She is a true example of someone who works diligently to find balance in her daily life through healthy eating and exercise while still allowing for small indulgences and rare cheat meals.
This is the image that comes to my mind when I think of a TRUE fitness buddy. Melissa has worked hard to inspire and encourage me throughout my fitness journey, and one of the greatest ways that she has helped me out is simply by working out with me. We have lived as close as a few miles from each other back when I was in grad school to as far as 450 miles apart. Whenever we are together, we try to get a workout in. As you can see, we do not have perfect makeup, hair, matching cute outfits, or smiles on our faces after a grueling workout. We are both drenched in sweat, flushed red, and tired.
One of the greatest advantages of today’s society is technology. Melissa and I currently live 450 miles apart, but we will manage to get at least 1 one workout in together a week. We do this through FaceTime and owning the same workouts. Because both of us own several of the same Beachbody programs, we are able to put in our DVDs and set up our iPads. Through a little creative syncing, we are able to do the exact same workout in the comfort of our own homes while being able to interact. It isn’t as fun as doing it together in the same room, but as you can tell, we still workout hard, sweat, and enjoy each other’s company.
On other occasions, our friend Liz has been able to join the workout session. Look at those guns!!!! It is so nice being able to stay connected even though we are not geographically close. I just want to note again that none of us have perfect anything going on in this pic, but we are getting healthy and having a good time. Hey, look! We are all sweaty. Now I’m starting so see why I noticed the lack of it earlier.
While Melissa is the person that I work out with the most, I am blessed to have other friends that I enjoy doing physical activities with from time to time. Living out close to Yellowstone has some great perks, including beautiful hiking trails. When Megan and Ashley came out to visit me one weekend, we took full advantage of the beautiful weather and went exploring. We were able to take our dogs and get in a good 3 mile hike. I’m not going to lie; this is not something that I would have done if my friends hadn’t been with me. It was so much more enjoyable to have that experience together.
A couple years ago, my friend Kim and I did the T-25 program together every day after school. There were even a few horrific mornings where we did it super early because of life obligations after work. Either way, we pushed each other to complete the program. I know that there were many times that I would have avoided those workouts if she hadn’t been coming over and doing them right beside me.
Finally, I want to give a shout out to Areanne. She is one of my former students, and she asked me if we could work out together. I was more than happy to oblige! So every day we would move the desks in my classroom and play the workout DVD on my SmartBoard. It was great, and I still miss working out with her daily.
I think the statement above is very true. Friends do make everything so much better! They make horrible workouts bearable, and they give you motivation when you don’t have any of your own. Mostly, they make it so you’re not alone. I strongly recommend finding your own fitness buddy if you do not have one already. It makes the journey so much more fun!